Whiskey Shivers’ bluegrass monster comes to Beaumont

It’s not enough that Vidor native Joe Deuce plays in one of my favorite Texas bands. He may just play in two.

I first saw Deuce playing upright bass in Austin band Deadtown, a bluesy rockabilly/country outfit that blew my mind with its intense energy, precise musicianship and one of the best “Folsom Prison Blues” covers I’ve ever seen. This weekend, Deuce returns to Beaumont with his other band, the Whiskey Shivers, and this band plays the kind of bluegrass, country, folk and traditional tunes that I can really get behind.

I get excited just hearing about the range of instruments that’ll take over Tequila Rok’s stage.

“I will be playing various degrees of washboards with everything from picks to flaming sticks,” Deuce said. “Besides that, of course there will be a stand-up, doghouse bass, banjo, guitar, and fiddle on stage — and believe me when I say that everyone in the band is a standout among standouts at their craft.”

You saw that part about Deuce playing washboards with flaming sticks, right? Just making sure.

Here’s what Deuce had to say about Whiskey Shivers, bluegrass monsters and the band’s recent appearance on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations.”

Q Which came first — Deadtown or Whiskey Shivers? Did one project lead to the creation of the other?
A I can’t recall what was happening first, but it was neck and neck. The two bands lived in the same apartment complex at an artist-heavy, weird Austin complex, and I best remember our paths crossing with the coming of long time Whiskey Shivers banjo player Evan Heidtmann.

Joe Deuce

He surfaced at the complex, and within a couple of weeks was the feature player in Whiskey Shivers and Deadtown. We met a few times, and even shared a few bills, and it wasn’t long before their washboard player at the time decided to leave the band. Pretty soon, I had been approached to play washboard, which I had no idea how to do.

It is important to note here that I was brought up not on the stand-up bass, but as a brush snare player for a never famous (but always great) Southeast Texas band Hot Rod Johnson, which would later become the Jasper County Trio/Choads supergroup (featuring local legend Johnny Janot) and was never be heard from again, sadly.

So having that background, I reluctantly agreed to join, as we shared similar senses of humor, and enjoyed playing together. Boy, it was weird for a while.

Q What overlaps do you see between the music you play for Deadtown and the music you play for Whiskey Shivers?
A I guess the relation is that we both are based on, and share a common interest in, roots music, and adapting it to be appealing to modern audiences, and that we of course share players and friendships.

Musically, its always been observed to be a “strange lineup” when both bands are playing, which I never understood, but both bands have a dynamic that is all their own. I suppose Deadtown may lean to be more brooding and organized, and Whiskey Shivers tends to be a bit more free-wheeling and fun, which is too large of a gear for people to shift sometimes, I suppose.

Q You gotta tell me about the inspiration behind your video for “Gimme All Your Lovin” — which I first spotted on PerezHilton.com — and the curious twist at the end of the video.
A I remember, although nobody in the band seems to, having a whiskey-fueled discussion about how cool it would be to shoot a video where a “bluegrass monster” — who would have enough arms to play all of our instruments — is chasing us through the woods.

I always envisioned it in stop-motion clay animation, which we had neither the money or patience for. Eventually our good friend Rob Wadleigh, who also directed Wildchild’s “Pillow Talk” video, turned a few hundred bucks, some 2x4s and a long day in a hot warehouse into what you now know as the “Gimme All Your Lovin” video.

The “twist” at the end was less of a statement and more of a giggle, although people have spent plenty of time arguing over what they believe it actually means. We have never, and will never, kill multiple women and store them under our floorboards. And you may quote me on that.

Q So how did you guys end up on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations”? Do you feel like the show portrayed your band — and Austin — accurately?
A We had played somewhere around 14 shows during South by Southwest. Our official showcase was to be our last show, and we tore the house down — literally shut the venue down. The next morning, I was awakened far too early with a call saying that we had to go do a couple of hours shoot knocking on people’s door with a film crew and playing music inside their houses — stressful enough — and that after, we would be playing some TV shoot at a barbeque place, which is not uncommon.

What was uncommon is that when I parked, eight dudes with headsets jumped out of a van beside me, which at this time, and in my state, was very bizarre. Pretty soon we were being briefed not to play when Tony was eating or they were filming.

Now, having toured with Wayne Hancock for a while, I had met a lot of people I looked up to, but had not yet been as starstruck as I was when Tony Bourdain pulls up. He’s seven feet tall and so cool, he makes you feel geeky. Once filming had wrapped, we began to play for the event. Per someone on the crew’s request, we were approached to play a few originals, just in case they may be able to use some of it, but that we shouldn’t expect anything to happen.

A few weeks later, we received wavers to sign, and a month or two later, we were all surprised that the piece not only used our music, but had actually featured us in the bit — very gratifying.

As for the show’s portrayal of Austin, they showed people up at 10 a.m. eating barbeque, drinking whiskey, and preparing for a big day of music, while enjoying each other’s company. In my circles, that’s about as Austin as it gets.